Apple has filed a patent application for a set of techniques to enhance security of iPhones and laptops using biometric sensing and other technologies.
Some of the identification methods described in the filing would automatically sense your unique personal attributes without you needing to perform a separate device-unlocking …

Re: Odor fun

So what happens when the "Owner" suddenly dies then??

So what happens when someone like say the Head of Household suddenly dies, and has the all the "Important Documents" stored on one of these things, I guess you could make Latex fingerprint impressions, but who'd have the thought ahead of time?

Surely a simple PW carefully stored up somewhere (where it could be found by your spouse), like a Lockbox would be enough...

Isn't this ...

... a good demonstration of what is wrong with the patent system and the way it is abused?

This isn't a registration to protect an invention, it's just using financial and legal muscle to try to suppress competition.

Still, it's an application to the USPTO, so I'm surprised they bothered to go into such detail, surely just a patent application for "Electronic Authentication Systems", claiming "To identify a user of a device" would have been sufficient for that bunch of muppets.